wrote in
g.com:


On 4-Dec-2007, Jim John wrote:

The number on the tail is
0-33142

Which means that the USAF Serial No. is 50-33142. As I understand it,
that by no means implies that the USAF acquired 33142 A/C that year.
It's simply
the number assigned this A/C.

Brian

Actually, that '0' in front is in reality an 'O' - the letter O, as in
'Obsolete'. The USAF and Army used this for many years in the '50s
through '70s to denote aircraft more than ten years old, since the serial
system normally used only the last digit of the fiscal year in which the
contract for the aircraft was awarded. This kept, for example, the serial
for your C-119 - in reality 53-3142 from being confused with 63-3142
(though visual inspection would quickly reveal that the latter was a
Martin AGM-12 Bullpup missile.)

A good source for USAF serials is Joe Baugher's site:

http://home.att.net/~jbaugher/usafserials.html

Which gives the following for your C-119.

"Fairchild C-119G 53-3142 (c/n 11153) converted to YC-119K. To MASDC as
CJ0419 Mar 16, 1972. Declared excess Dec 26, 1973."

Joe also has a site for US Navy and Marines serials at:

http://home.att.net/~jbaugher/navyserials.html

Bob ^,,^